Thursday, July 15, 2004

Evasionby Mack

[Check out the link to the Evasion website... under "anti-work" on the sidebar --Skald]

Evasion in an almost religious way, as a text by which to live their life. Since itís release - the book and the zine before that - weíve seen in the DIY subculture a surge in things like dumpster diving, and shoplifting, as well as a wave of ìtraveler kidsî inspired in part or whole by your writing. What are your reflections on the role youíve played in these things? Are these positive trends?

First, I think Iíll fall under attack if I didnít point out there was Iggy Scam before me, and Aaron Cometbus before him, and we could trace the lineage of Evasion back to Abbie Hoffman before both. Prankster/outlaw/vagabond memoir-literature is timeless.

Traveling continues to be important to me. But I have not ever, nor do I now identify with ìtraveler kid cultureî. I was never involved with the anarcho/crust/pseudo-activist/scenester cult many would identify me with. When it comes with dreadlocks, a bandanna in itís back pocket, and holds a 40 oz, I run. Itís just a basic feeling this scene has nothing to do with my life. Iím speaking of most every traveling punk Iíve met when I say the traveling culture is focused on ìhanging outî.One thing about my early writing, something that remains important to me, is that much of my traveling was done alone. The emphasis was on the experience. I still choose to travel alone at least half the time. But for many of the kids I meet now.... Itís a social scene. Hopping trains from punk house to punk house. Great I guess, but.... I donít really stay at punk houses, or eat Food Not Bombs, or go to ìradicalî conferences. I support those things, but they are not stimulating to me. So, Iím not really in the circles you describe.

I wouldnít doubt maybe a few kids have read Evasion and decided to model their life from it. Is this positive? Dumpster diving reduces consumption, so I feel good about that. I like the idea of people maybe taking a shortcut to their dreams via a little ìreallocation of goodsî, like the kid in Louisville who told me his passion was music, and after reading Evasion walked into one of those chain music stores and walked out with a guitar! I can say Iíve hardly had a bad day since I quit my last job 8 years ago, and I think most people would be better for doing the same. Iíve gotten several ìRead Evasion, went veganî letters, and those are the greatest. Then there are Evasion readers who come away just knowing better tactics for stealing beer. You take the good with the bad.

"Poets are those who have made a profession and a lifestyle of being in touch with their bliss... Follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they'd be. Always go where you want to go -- where your body and soul want to go. When you have the feeling then stay with it, don't let anyone throw you off." --Joseph Campbell

"When you're on a journey, and the end keeps getting further and further away, then you realize that the real end is the journey." --Karlfried Graf Durckheim

Links

Hobopoets & Freedom Fighters (Blogs & Websites)

Hakim BeyFantastic- The anarchist-sufi prophet of Hobopoets! Visit this site!!

PlarkA traveler and hater of work.... nice thoughts on living a meaningful life.

Pupil in DenialThe writings of a woman who is staunchly resistent in ever parting with her lovelylife of an undergrad slash part-time barista which is everfaithful in churning quickmoney to satisfy her wickedwanderlust!

"Because of the dogma of workerism, unemployment is a problem rather than the boon to humanity that it should be." --Len Bracken

"Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them.... Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually, though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have." -- Henry David Thoreau

Rolling TimesTONS of information on RVs and RVing... much of it applicable to van/car living.

"Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have ever lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor" -- Henry David Thoreau

"A kind of second childhood falls on so many men. They trade their violence for the promise of a small increase in life span. In effect, the head of the house becomes the youngest child.... I did not want to surrender fierceness for a small gain in yardage. My wife married a man; I saw no reason why she should inherit a baby... And in my own life I am not willing to trade quality for quantity." --John Steinbeck, Travels With Charly

"The negative refusal of Home is "homelessness", which most consider a form of victimization, not wishing to be forced into nomadology. But "homelessness" can in a sense be a virtue, an adventure- so it appears, at least, to the huge international movement of the squatters, our modern hobos." -Hakim Bey

Spiritual

Vipassana MeditationFantastic meditation courses all over the world (free)!! I HIGHLY recommend them.

"Act as if you were already free... take the risk, dance before you calcify."-- Hakim Bey

We must constantly remind ourselves (since our culture won`t do it for us) that this monster called WORK remains the precise & exact target of our rebellious wrath, the one single most oppressive reality we face. - Hakim Bey

Poetry, Writing, & Art

Cafe PressA fantastic self-publishing site. No upfront costs. The wave of the future for DIY publishers.

Written RoadJen Leo's travel writing site. Very good and very informative.

Arthur RimbaudA glorious site with poems and a biography of the restless mad genius.

Aldous HuxleyA collection of links and info on the great writer-philospher.

"In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness" -- Henry David Thoreau

"Altough we all realize that monotony is boring, almost every form of industrial work- banking, accounting, mass-producing, service- is monotonous, and most people are paid for simply putting up with monotony..." --Alan Watts

"And what is the nature of a wasteland? It is a land where everybody is living an inauthentic life, doing as other people do-- doing as you're told, with no courage for your own life. To live an authentic life, Take your wisdom from your own experience. Because in thinking, the majority is always wrong." --Joseph Campbell

"All societies tremble when the scornful aristocracy of the tramps, the inaccessibles, the uniques, the rulers over the ideal, and the conquerors of the nothing resolutely advances." --Hakim Bey

Nomadism & Travel

BootsnAllIndependent travel stories from around the world. Contribute your own.

World HumTravel dispatches from a shrinking planet. Good travel writing site.

AjarnThis is the largest and most comprehensive website for English teaching in Thailand. Has an extensive job board, plus general information about living in Thailand

Stickman's BangkokAn in-depth site with practical information about living and working in Bangkok. Cocky, cynical and negative- but the basic info is good.

TealitSite for teaching English and living in Taiwan, including a job board.

Another year is gone -A travel hat on my head,Straw sandals on my feet--Basho

"If there's one thing I hate, it's the word "safety". We live in a civilization of safety, in which we are eventually cocooned from all danger, that is to say, from all experience. What we are left with is a vegetable plugged into a computer, who never leaves the room, like a hideous vision of a William Gibson novel. We would be well advised to rediscover risk." --Hakim Bey

"Remember above all things that to write is not difficult, not painful, that it comes out of you with ease, that you can whip up a little tale in no time, that when you are sincere about it, that when you want to impress a truth, it is not difficult, not painful, but easy, graceful, full of smooth power, as if you were a writing machine with a store of literature that is boundless, enormous, endless, rich. For it is true; this is so. Do not forget it in your gloomier moments. Make your stuff warm, drive it home American-wise, don't mind critics, don't mind the stuffy academic theses of scholars, they don't know what they are talking about, they're way off the track, they're cold; you're warm, you're red hot, you can write all day, you know what you know...." -- Jack Kerouac